


The Love and Care of Kipo

by Azureshadowmoon



Category: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Cartoon)
Genre: Sisterly bonding, Tiny Angst, kids being wholesome, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23571808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azureshadowmoon/pseuds/Azureshadowmoon
Summary: She’s too dense. She bumbles around naively with so much air in her head Wolf is surprised she doesn’t just float away. It’s exactly those thoughts, the ones of Kipo disappearing, that leave Wolf a little clingier than she should be.
Relationships: Kipo Oak & Wolf
Comments: 9
Kudos: 189





	1. Chapter 1

.

.

Kipo is still Kipo.

That’s what Wolf tells herself. It’s an overgrown villa and there’s death ivy hanging from the ceiling and Kipo is just. Swinging from it. Humming and balancing on very deadly ivy that should instantly kill anything that touches it and Kipo is just. Ugh.

“Are you guys seeing this?” Dave asks from nearby and, yeah. Wolf rubs her face. Kipo is Kipo, who walks into abandoned buildings singing out of date music and playing hopscotch with poisonous leaves. Bensen takes maybe four seconds to marvel at their weird friend before skooching to the other side of the room. His sneakers squeak as they do and the Pig dogs after it excitedly.

Dave says, “Seriously, are you guys seeing Kipo being weird?”

“Yes.” Bensen answers.

Wolf glowers, “Is it weird if it’s actually her normal?”

Kipo cranes her neck to peer at them, blinking silted eyes in confusion, “What? Did I do something?”

“Death ivy.” Wolf says.

Kipo blinks widely. Her face sinks in horror and she screams, flailing away from the vines like they were just bugs. She tilts sideways and Wolf has a very nasty image of Kipo forty feet down cradling a broken leg. The exasperation drops from her like a cold weight. Fierce determination has her hooking stalky into the scaffolds above and swinging herself over the ivy and grabbing onto Kipo’s shirt like a misbehaving puppy. But Kipo is alive, startled and breathing heavily, but okay.

But just to be sure, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks for the save.” Kipo turns her head to give her a grin, all teeth and warmth. It’s different then the teeth she’s used to, fangs and saliva and growling. But Kipo isn’t her family and it relaxes her. She swings them back to Dave who looks unimpressed.

“Okay can we leave?” He complains. “Whatever’s here, it’s dead. Big dead. I’m too small to be that dead. I’m out.”

“Shut up.” Wolf whacks Kipo in the back with stalky.

“Yah! What was that for?”

“Pay attention to where you’re going next time.”

Kipo deflates, “Yeah okay. Buuuut now we know I’m immune to Death ivy poison! Pretty cool, huh?”

It’s the coolest thing Wolf can think ever happening, but she fixes her friend with a glare. She doesn’t want to let anyone know the scare she had. And, a small part of her agrees, knowing Kipo is safe from something in this world brings a lot more relief then it should.

Bensen waves from the door, “Well you can play with the death ivy Kipo. Have fun!”

“Hey wait, I wasn’t offering to-“

He left. Dave gave a shout of dismay and ran after, leaving the two girls alone. Which. Okay. Wolf exhales through her nose. She wants to talk but all the words in her throat is just more ‘your weird’ and ‘please stop giving me heart attacks’. She doesn’t know what to say.

Kipo does.

“Hey.” A pair of pink eyes duck down in front of her. “We going? Wolf?”

She purses her lips, “Sure. Just don’t trip, okay?”

Something flashes in the feline gaze and Kipo grins apologetically, “Will do, sis.”

.

.

Kipo is a walking problem.

They’ve stopped at the Cardinal Ranch, which isn’t surprising at all that it’s a bunch of bird mutes who ride robot ‘bulls’ and shoot ‘nerf’ guns. The boys are having the time of their lives at the shooting range. It’s one of those peaceful places that don’t care about humans. It’s doesn’t make Wolf any less tense.

Kipo takes six steps towards the bar, trips, and runs headfirst into an iron pole.

“Kipo!”

Wolf isn’t the first one to get to her. A cardinal was sitting at the bar and is now crouching beside her, making worried southern sounds, “oh hey, oh hey, honey, you okay?”

Wolf slides to a stop and nearly stabs the bird. Kipo is laying facedown, unmoving, and there’s a mute standing over her. Every instinct in her hand wants to jab stalky right into its gut. Instead, Kipo groans and her fingers relax.

“What happen?” Kipo raises her head dizzily. “Where did I go?”

The cardinal makes a bewildered noise, “You went, you went nowhere honey. Right into, right into a pole you went.”

“Oh.” The half-mute hisses and rubs her head. “Oh, ouch.”

“Seriously.” Wolf sighs grumpily and crouches down to help Kipo to her feet. The girl sways and rubs her face but is otherwise unharmed. The bleary silted eyes can attest to that. “Cover your eyes or the lights will hurt.”

Kipo makes a confused noise, “Why would they-“

“Shhh!” Wolf lowers her voice. “Eyes, Kipo, your eyes.”

“Oh, right, okay.”

The cardinal hovers for a few moments longer which only drives Wolf’s nerves sideways. It takes a tired goodbye from Kipo to get the mute to go back to the bar. Wolf doesn’t look behind her as she drags Kipo outside and into the night air. Darker and not less safe, but less mutes and that’s what matters.

“Wolf, I’m okay now.” Kipo rubs her forehead sheepishly. “Took a dumb tumble, but I’m fine.”

“I thought cats had feline grace.” Wolf mutters. Her heart was still stuttering. She felt she deserved to be a little salty about the whole ordeal.

“Yeah, that’s what I asked Yum Yum too. He never heard of it.” Kipo rubbed her neck. “I’ll wait out here till it goes away. You can go back inside if you want.”

Wolf doesn’t say anything. She sits against the wall and waits. Kipo doesn’t say anything either, but she’s smiling a whole lot when they go back in ten minutes later.

.

.

There are times where it’s up to Kipo. It’s those moments that suck the most.

Not that Wolf doesn’t trust her to get the job done. It’s a horde of muffler wasps and Wolf has already been stung, her voice gone for now and her limbs too jelly to be of any help. Bensen guards her loyally as Kipo leaps from their spot and into the trees, a deadly flash of pink as clouds of wasps drop from the sky.

It’s dangerous and awful and Wolf would rather they had just run away and hid. But that’s not Kipo’s method, which is always direct confrontation. If she still had vocal cords, she’d be groaning.

Bensen pats her knee, “How are you holding up?”

She makes a slicing motion over her throat.

“Yeah, I imagine. I just hope Kipo isn’t allergic.” He says it with a nervous laugh. It makes her want to be nervous. She glances up at the canopy and watches for pink, listens for buzzing. All of it is silence.

And then Kipo is landing on all fours.

She’s bristling and breathing heavily and there are many stingers sticking out of her. She’s grinning, huffing through her teeth and wiping sweat from her face. It’s a worrying sight.

“Piece of cake.” She wheezes.

A wasp slips out of the canopy and darts right for her back. Wolf can’t make a noise and Bensen is holding stalky. She struggles passed her swelled throat and absolutely ruins what’s left of her vocal cords.

“Kipo duck!”

She does. The wasp spirals confusedly before ending up skewered by Bensen. She can’t see if it got Kipo. She’s too busy gagging and holding her throat to ease the pain.

“Wolf! Are you okay? Hang in there!”

Later, she’s treated to tea and a hundred thank you’s from Kipo. Her voice comes back bit by bit enough to let her snicker when Bensen must use his tweezers to get the more stubborn stingers out of Kipo’s arm. It’s a relief to know she’s not allergic and it doesn’t hurt, but it does itch like crazy.

“Bensen, please, I don’t deserve this.”

“I’m sorry Kipo.” He’s being as dramatic as her but he’s grinning. “It’s your time.”

“I can’t take another one.”

“There’s literally one left.”

“Don’t let it end like this!”

There’s a whole bunch of squealing and laughing. By the time they’ve all settled in for the night, Wolf has enough of her voice to say, ‘you’re welcome’.

.

.

Kipo is Kipo. Except when she’s not.

It’s when the moons full overhead, the stars glittering across blues and blacks. It’s the quiet of the night, the stillness of failure sinking into her bones and leaving her sagging against a billboard. Wolf hears the others sleeping nearby. She’s almost too tired to stomach a conversation right now. She crawls up the ladder and sits down anyway no matter how badly she aches.

Kipo looks worse.

There are bruises under her eyes and band aids dotting her hands. A patch of gauze tucks itself just under her jaw. Her frown is worrying her bottom lip between her teeth where the barest hint of fang shows. Wolf watches her and gauges if she should say anything at all.

Kipo says, “You can say it.”

“I don’t want to.” Wolf admits softly.

Kipo flinches. Her shoulders sink and it looks like she might cry. The half-mute takes a heavy breath and exhales quiet words.

“I’m sorry.” She starts off. “I shouldn’t have- I really should have listened to you. This time, this time should have gone to you.”

Wolf hates that. She knows, in the heat of the moment, that she wants Kipo to listen to her. Kipo’s plans are crazy but they’re crazy enough to work. Crazy enough to save a small pack of Ferret Friends (which is almost ridiculous that there’s hippie mutes) from a raging megamute. But not all plans work, and it hurts twice as badly if it’s Kipo’s. There’s always a part of Wolf that wants to do Kipo’s plan. Watch it pan out and feel the satisfaction of a happy ending.

There’s a lot of dead mutes today.

Kipo buries her head into her knees. “I’m so stupid.”

“You’re not.” Wolf says because Kipo may be naïve and strange, but she’s a genius and a nerd and- “You’re Kipo.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Wolf huffs, “It means you’re a good person. You do good things. Before I met you, I wouldn’t have felt a thing about today.”

It’s a hard admission. Kipo looks up at her with watery eyes. Wolf feels her own lip tremble and must look away, towards the moon and the sky and the vast expanse of everything.

“But now I feel it.” She whispers. “I don’t want to pick the safe road anymore. The easiest path isn’t the right one. Your path was the right one Kipo. It just didn’t work.”

“If we had gone through the canyon-“ Kipo says.

“They wouldn’t have made the trip.” Wolf cuts her off. “You wanted to take the forest path. It was dangerous but we had our camouflage. We did everything we could Kipo. You even fought the thing. _You_ did everything you could.”

Kipo looks at the ground and says, “It didn’t do much in the end.”

Wolf doesn’t know what to say. She’s not good at this. Comforting Kipo is even harder since it’s so rare when it happens. Every other time it’s happened at least Bensen has been there.

Wolfs says, “I think it did a lot.”

“What did it do?” Kipo asks almost desperately, “What am I doing, Wolf?”

“Your best.” Wolf turns her head to smile at her friend. She’s pleased to see the softening of silted eyes, the relaxing of clenches claws. The fur falls away slowly and it’s Kipo, tired but smiling at her.

“Thanks.” Kipo wipes her eyes with her sleeve. “I guess. Next time. We do better?”

“We’ll do better.” Wolf promises, unsure if she even wants to think about future problems. She feels too tired and wrung out already. “After we sleep.”

“Right.” Kipo looks up at Aries and says, “thank you Wolf.”

Wolf doesn’t say your welcome, but she says it in the way she hands Kipo an extra blanket. They sleep up on the billboard that night. It does a number on her back in the morning, but she doesn’t have any nightmares about ferrets and Kipo doesn’t cry in her sleep. It’s a good night.


	2. Chapter 2

.

.

They aren’t always on the run.

In fact, often, they’re leisurely strolling on their way. However leisurely one could trail after a psychopath monkey who kidnaps fathers. Wolf won’t admit how relaxing it is. Bensen’s tunes would play softly around them. Kipo would have her arms thrown behind her head and stare up at the vast blue. Wolf kept her guard up and surveyed their surroundings but, it’s always her friends she watches.

It’s nice.

She kicks at the road as she walks. It brings a lot of attention to her. To her bare feet.

There’s a _click_ and the music stops, “Hey Wolf, ever thought about getting shoes.”

“Don’t talk to me.”

Bensen shrugs, “Hey. C’mon. Your feet have got to be killing you.”

“I walk just fine.”

“Yeah Bensen.” Kipo chimes in while kicking her own bare feet in the air. “You should try it sometimes! It tickles when dirt gets between your toes.”

Bensen makes a face, “I’ll pass.”

“Think they got any bug shoes?” Dave asks.

For the next few hours, the topic of shoes is dropped in favor of debating if bugs needed to wear clothes. Dave was all for clothes if they were stylish. Wolf wanted nothing to do with the conversation. She kept herself ahead and alert and thus was the first aware of the grocery store they were approaching.

She grins, “Jack pot.”

“Oh hey!” Bensen trots up beside her. “Nice catch, Wolf. Let’s go check it out.”

The door to the grocer is broken and unmovable. It’s Dave, who’s for once useful and flies up to spot windows above them.

“Found a way in guys!” He says before diving headfirst into the glass.

The three of them pause and Bensen says, “Yeah I’ll wait out here.”

“Suit yourself.” Wolf stabs stalky into the wall and uses it as leverage to hoist herself up and over the windowsill. “Kipo, do you need-“

“I got it!”

Wolf blinks as a pink blur vaults itself right up to the ledge. She smiles, a little impressed. It falls off her face as Kipo finds her footing and immediately yelps.

“Glass!” The half-mute flails and pitches forward, sending herself into a nasty tumble into the aisle down below. An ugly crush and a cry of pain follows.

“Kipo!”

“Wolf! What was that?”

“It’s Kipo, hold on!”

Wolf latches on to an overhead light and swings herself onto a nearby counter. From here she can see Kipo, half buried under shelfs and groaning pitifully. It’s a relief to know she’s still coherent enough to complain. It wasn’t too serious then.

“My feet.” Kipo wiggled herself out. “Ouch. My feet hurt.”

“You stepped on glass.” Wolf approached and crouched down. She winced at the sight of the shards. “Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark.”

“Bensen!” Kipo cried. “I need your tweezers!”

There was a distance scream of ‘what again?!’ but was forgotten as Kipo moved to stand. Wolf _tsked_ and pushed her back down with stalky.

“Are you seriously trying to walk around with glass stuck in your feet? Just sit tight.” She paused. “Dave! Go get Bensen!”

“I’m here, I’m here.” Said boy huffed from above them. “Oh man, Kipo. That’s gnarly.”

“Please hurry everything hurts and Wolf is mothering me.”

Wolf choked. She turned an affronted glare to Kipo who looked a little too cheeky while grimacing in pain. Bensen was laughing as he landed beside them.

“See? This is why we wear shoes.”

“I will never doubt shoes ever again.” Kipo said solemnly. “Good thing I’m a fast healer, eh?”

Wolf opened her mouth. A whole argument about Kipo being too fat footed to properly run around bare foot was stuck in her throat. It was the sneakiest way to move around. For survival. Learning it was better then stomping around in sneakers.

She glanced at Kipo’s injured feet.

“Yeah.” She muttered. “Let’s go find you some shoes.”

Bensen huffed as he set his backpack down, “ _After_ Kipo bandages her feet. Sorry Kipo. I love you and you’re my best friend but I’m not touching your dirty feet.”

“Aww Bensen, that’s so ni- wait, are they really that dirty?”

“Focus Kipo!”

“Alright, alright!” Kipo laughed. “But only if you get shoes too Wolf.”

“Ugh, fine, whatever gets us out of this place quicker.”

Later, Wolf awkwardly hobbled down the road in her new sneakers. It wasn’t so bad and, if Dave said anything, all she had to do was take one off her feet and chuck it at his head.

.

.

“What’s an ark-aid?”

Bensen was laughing, “It’s called an arcade, Kipo. It’s where you go and play video games.”

Wolf scoffed. The whole building itself was so dilapidated it’s a wonder the roof was still holding up. Majority of the machines were broken and destroyed. It was a complete waste of time in her opinion. But the boys were dragging Kipo in and she wouldn’t be caught alone outside.

She followed reluctantly.

“Woah.” Kipo looked left and right and said, “there’s nothing here.”

“Well duh.” Bensen threw his backpack onto one of the machines. “It’s been two hundred years since these things worked. If any of these things managed to turn on, I’d eat my whole shoe.”

Dave sighed forlornly as he leaned on _Mega Fighter X,_ “One day, my friend. One day.”

Kipo frowned.

Wolf threw her head back and sighed, “Are we done here? We’re wasting time.”

“I might be with Wolf on this one.” Kipo sheepishly scratched her arm. “I know you were excited to show us this, but. There’s nothing here, Bensen.”

Bensen raised an eyebrow.

“I said the machines didn’t work.” He grinned as he reached over the counter and pulled out a small flat box. “But you don’t need power to play board games.”

“Oh yeah, count me in!” Dave crowed.

Kipo made a happy ‘ohhh’ noise. Wolf peeked at the cover and sneered. _Clue_ was barely legible through the stains and wear on the box. Her feet were already taking her towards the exit.

“Wolf, where ya going?”

“I’m not playing that.”

Bensen sighed loudly. It had Wolf pausing as he said, “I guess that’s fair. I don’t think Wolf would know how to solve a mystery.”

Wolf twitched.

“Yeah, I can’t blame her.” Dave nodded solemnly. “It’s really hard to find why the candlestick did it.”

She twitched again.

“Oh. I see.” Kipo was reading the back. “Even toddlers can do this. That’s so cool.”

Wolf sat down, “Fine. I’m playing.”

The boys high fived. She glared them down as Bensen started explaining the rules. Majority went over her head, but Kipo soaked it up with shaking excitement. The game began almost too easily and carried on for well over an hour.

Wolf frowned at her checklist. There were only two weapons it could be.

“I think it was,” She paused and slowly read, “Mister green with the candlestick in the kitchen.”

Dave burst into tears, “Oh man, how’d I lose to Wolf! I’ll never be a professional hitman.”

“Dave, it’s just a game.”

“Shut up! You didn’t lose to an eight-year-old!”

“Excuse me?!”

Kipo was laughing so hard she dropped her cards, “Wait, wait, how do you kill someone with a candlestick?”

“I dunno.” Bensen shrugged and completely ignored the fight happening right beside him. “It’s just a game. Maybe it made a lot more sense back then?”

Kipo stared at the candlestick card. Her face slowly scrunched up and Wolf came back to the conversation to say, “What are you thinking about?”

“Just.” Kipo waved the card around and let it go onto the board. “The past, I guess. It would have been really cool to be here when it was still, you know. New.”

Bensen glanced over at the machines longingly, “Yeah. I found an old manual in the back and it was talking about racing games with steering wheels and fighting games with just, little sticks. Man. To be two hundred years ago.”

“You said it.” Kipo mumbled.

Wolf stared at them. With barely a twitch of her face she had stalky spinning in the air and whacking the both in the back of their heads. They yelped.

“Ow!”

“What was that for?”

She scoffed, “Looking at you two getting mopey about a bunch of expired old-world stuff is making me sick. They obviously didn’t know what they were doing if there’s nothing left of them.”

Bensen huffed a smile and leaned back on his hands, “But there is stuff of them left. This arcade. Us. _We’re_ what’s left of them.”

Kipo stared quietly at the board. Wolf didn’t know what to say so she tossed her head over her shoulder to look somewhere else. Dave groaned from a nearby shelf.

“Alright, now I’m bummed out. Let’s go get some sad food.”

“Can we take the board with us?” Kipo leaned forward to take back the candlestick card. “It was fun.”

“Sure, I got room in the pack.”

Wolf got to her feet with a relieved exhale, “Finally. This place reeks.”

Bensen nudged her as he shouldered on his backpack, “Aw, c’mon. You know you had fun.”

“What’d I say about touching me?”

They left the arcade. The sun was starting to fall below the horizon, casting long shadows along trees and buildings. Wolf stretched as she set about looking for a good spot to camp out. The others were starting to yawn and drag their feet. It was basically a walking buffet.

Kipo was still frowning.

Wolf said, “You’re making that face again.”

“Huh?” The half-mute blinked. “What face? I’m not making a face.”

“You’re pouting.”

“No I’m not.”

Bensen turned to walk backwards with them, “Actually Wolf is right. You’ve been quiet Kipo. What’s up?”

She mumbled. Wolf’s eye twitched and she said, “Speak up.”

“I just. I really want to play that with my dad. That’s all.”

The casual air grew stiff. Bensen shifted uncomfortably. Wolf herself chewed her lip nervously. It was a lightly stepped around topic. The strange circumstance of her fathers kidnapping coupled with her strange new mutations. Wolf glanced at Bensen. He caught her eye and nodded.

“Well, it’s staying in the pack until then.” He declared.

Wolf patted Kipo’s shoulder, “You’ll get to play with him. I promise.”

Kipo smiled, eyes soft and misty as she threw her arms over their shoulders.

“Thanks guys.” She sniffled. “I’d be lost without you.”

“Aw, man. You’re gonna make me cry Kipo.”

“Deal with it.”

Dave spoke up from ahead, “Hey maybe that game is onto something. I can already see it. Dave did it in Scarlemagne’s Castle with a candlestick.”

They laughed.


End file.
